Hotel Le Meridien New Delhi sent out a Christmas message with a difference by unveiling a Christmas tree made of newsprint to sensitize people towards environmental degradation and the preservation of forest cover.
“We like to do new perspective events so that our guests have a great experience. This time, we based it on how to utilise old newspapers of the hotel. We fashioned this special tree and lent an artistic and aesthetic focus to the concept of ‘Reduce-Reuse-Recycle’, which is the motto of the hotel,” Meena Bhatia, vice president, operations and marketing, Le Meridien Hotel, told IANS.
The special guest at the event was Santa Claus from Rovaniemi in Finland’s province of Lapland which, according to European Christian legend, is the original home of Santa Claus or Father Christmas.
Santa Claus, accompanied by girls singing carols and hymns, unveiled the 14 feet tall Christmas tree made of used newspapers collected in the hotel over a period of 15 days.
“I urge everyone to reduce wastage and recycle goods,” Santa Claus said while addressing the audience, which mainly consisted of children.
The other highlight of the event was a 12 feet long and four feet wide palm cake. Half of it was made of liqueur and half with non-liqueur ingredients, especially for children.
“Tomorrow, this cake will be distributed among the children at Vidya and Care Centre, a Noida-based NGO. We also encourage our guests to bring old toys and books so that Santa can distribute them to various charities in the city,” Bhatia said.